Cross-post

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Cross-posting is the act of submitting an article to more than one newsgroup or mailing list. This is done to get broader coverage of an issue.

Cross-posting is often frowned upon, but if the groups to whom the post is submitted are all independent, but appropriate to the subject matter, objections are generally minimal.

Cross-posting stands in stark contrast to Multi-posting (whereby the same material is posted several places--without any links between the occurrences and without all information, in the form of commonly-shared responses, available to all who read the original post).

Reasons for cross-posting (as opposed to posting the same item individually to several groups):

  1. When the posts are linked, readers of one group (who do not read all of the groups) will gain from the wisdom of those in the other groups.
  2. After the question has been adequately answered in one group, people in another group will not continue to respond with the same solution.
  3. It is more likely that erroneous statements in responses will be corrected.
  4. The first time a properly constructed newsreader encounters a cross-posted post, that post is marked as Read in ALL the groups in which it is cross-posted. News reader software that is configured to not display already-viewed messages will only present the message (and the replies) to the user once.
  5. File-sharing: when sharing illegal files, they are often posted to as many newsgroups as possible, to provide the best coverage.

How to cross-post:

1. Enter each of the groups to whom the post should be submitted on the Newsgroups line (or To line); separate the groups with commas.

2. NOTE: Some people find the following technique nearly as objectionable as Multi-posting, in that (if you are not reading the post in the group on the Followup-to line) in order to read the responses, you must leave the group you are in.

Select a single group to which you would like the responses to go and put it on the Followup-to line.

If you use this method, do note in the body of the post that Followup-to is set. (The worst aspect of the Followup-to technique is that it is so often done improperly.)

As always, make sure that the Subject line accurately describes the content of the post.